For years, one of India’s oldest English newspapers, The Statesman, was in financial distress. Its revenues were dwindling, and it had struggled to settle dues with lenders like the State Bank of India.

Yet, in June 2025, the newspaper pulled off a corporate miracle. Through the National Company Law Tribunal, it acquired the United News of India, or UNI, the country’s second-largest news agency.

The deal was valued at roughly Rs 75 crore. UNI’s employees, who were owed over Rs 100 crore in unpaid wages and dues, were forced to settle for just Rs 23.3 crore.

The deal raised the question: how did a newspaper company with a battered balance sheet come up with the cash to buy a news agency?

Besides being a legacy newswire, UNI also sat on lucrative real estate. It was headquartered at a property measuring half an acre in Rafi Marg in Delhi, right in the heart of the Lutyens zone. This land had been leased to it by the government and has been tied up in litigation for years.

On Friday, after the Delhi High Court lifted a stay on a 2023 government order cancelling the news agency’s lease rights to the property, the Modi government took control of the UNI office. That evening, dozens...

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